Four with One Shell

The Saturday my brother died, Jay went out hunting in the morning and got four geese with one shot.

 

The Turkey Trot

No, not the dance; I am referring to the 19 minute hunt Jay took less than an hour ago which resulted in him bringing home another 10+ pound hen turkey and busting up the rest of the flock for the morning’s hunt.

The evidence:

As you see, Hawthorne was quite taken with her.

Here is the goose girl’s goose:

And another:

It is not just her.  It is familial.

Wildlife Woes

J and I took Hawthorne for a walk later than usual this morning–about 8.45AM.  Stumpwiggle started a rabbit in the hedgerow part way back to the woods, but only caught its scent.   Then Hawthorne saw two large turkeys by the woods edge before we did and was off in hot pursuit.  He chased one across the alfalfa field until it flew up into the trees by the ravine.  J and I had been talking about lots of things; one of which was the honking coming from the harvested corn field on the other side of the hedgerow.

A small flock of Canada geese took off and flew overhead.  Then a about 8 went over. Since J likes the game Oregon Trail , we pretended to shoot them.  Then a dozen took off and we practiced aiming at them.  Then about twenty.  Now, last night I had told my husband there were no geese landing in that field anymore when he wondered if he should go up and hunt in the morning.  There had been none the last few days.  But this was a lovely sunny, clear, still morning.  And Jay was coaching a soccer game so the geese were safe.

Convinced all the geese had flown, J, Hawthorne and I crossed over into the corn field to continue our walk.  As we came up the first rise, Hawthorne took off ahead of us.  I looked ahead and there was a large flock of wild turkeys!  Fourteen took flight into the woods.  I have not ever seen that many back there.  Poor Jay.  It is also turkey season.   Calling Hawthorne back, we turned around to go share the sad news when about 75 more geese took off from the other side of the field, completing our rout of all the wild game available for huntint in the near vicinity.

Visitors

Sue came to get tomatoes for her son’s birthday dinner since she does not have many between the chickens eating them and the new disease attacking them.  She brought a present for Isabelle, which Jay has said can stay until Saturday.

Hawthorne likes them very much.

Let’er Ripple

Even niece Janine, visiting for the week,  is getting along fairly well with ripple.

Ripple This Morning

She must be feeding herself much better as she was not very hungry and flew away after only one large worm–broken up for polite and easy dining.  The last few days she has gotten hungrier as the day progresses.  Yesterday she ate 15 pieces of cat food at one meal!

I suspect she will come to be fed only another week or two, then be on her own.   We parents do the feeding early and late as a cousin is here and the children are sleeping very late–too late for the poor animals.

Teaching Ripple Robin

Ripple, we are convinced, is female.  She daily looks more like a young lady robin.  She sleeps and lives out on her own now.  Isabelle drenched her with water on the sidewalk a couple days ago when the sun was full out.  She seemed to enjoy her bath very much.

She likes small strawberry pieces.

She still calls to us from her perches when she is hungry and flies down to be fed.  She flies quite well and can go as high up into the spruces as she wishes.

Tonight another unusual experience added: a young fledgling robin flying down into the garden to be helped, “tutored” in finding insects and worms as we were weeding.  Jay and I did our best, digging in the mulch and even turning over an old straw bale where she pulled a couple small worms on her own and found several small insects: pillbugs, ant larvae among them.